Phil Mann: Hydrophobia

Shambling but innovative planet-hopping madness

This year for his show, the other-worldly Phil Mann is actually leaving the planet. To be exact, the human race have left Earth for Mars and here we are at a point in the future looking back on how it went.

Mann's unafraid to embrace the oddball in his work and this is no exception. He shares, among other things, his worst sexual moments and how he was sent back to kill Hitler. There are plenty of bad puns strewn about too, ones that teeter on the brink of not working at all, a quality which makes them funnier.

The political is here too and he's damning about reality TV – envisioning a future where much of the world and one man's entire life is televised a la The Truman Show.

Not all in the room go with him and there are some awkward moments as Mann moves through his crowd asking them if they think they're good at sex. But it all adds to the charm. Presented in his idiosyncratic style, it's shambling, somewhat disjointed but ultimately innovative. One to catch for a taste of the madness of the Fringe.

Stand-up Comedy on the Moon. Stand-up Comedy on the Ocean Floor. From the dry and deadly (funny) vacuum of space, to the terrifying (hilarious) blackness of the seabed, a series of unhinged characters suffering with Hydrophobia: an aversion to water.
From the artistic director of the successful BattleActs, and…